Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: The aim of this study is to investigate association between Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) and vestibular function and the possible effect of levothyroxine (LT4) treatment on vestibular function

Patients and methods: We recruited 61 patients with HT and 30 age and gender matched healthy individuals for the study. Of 30 patients with HT were on LT4 treatment (group I) and 31 patients were treatment naive (group II). None of the patients had vestibulary and hearing complaints. Each subject was submitted to complete vestibular evaluation [Vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (VEMPs), and video head impulse test (vHIT)].

Results: There was no differences between groups for the frequencies of altered cervical and ocular VEMP tests (cervical VEMP for right ear P=0.161; for left ear P=0.357; ocular VEMP for right ear 0.895, for left ear P=0.379). The frequency of altered vHİT tests were similar for all groups (P>0.05). As we compared the hypothyroid and euthyroid patients there were significant differences between groups for left ear cVEMP (P=0.042) and in vHIT tests in right ear’s lateral semicircular canal (P=0.018).

Discussion: In contrast to most studies concerning the relationship between HT and vestibular function, in our study, there were no differences between patients with HT and control group. We evaluated all participants with more detailed compared with the studies in the literature. Since HT is an autoimmune disease restricted to he thyroid, there may not be any systemic effects of autoantibodies in other organ systems. However the altered tests of vHIT for lateral canal for both ears in hypothyroid patients needs to evaluated with further studies.